Project Profile: Page (1) of 1 - 05/04/04

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Two Days in November A Review of the Gear Used While Recording the New JAZZOOO Album By Doug Robinson I'm the luckiest independent jazz musician alive. I've had the good fortune to record albums in beautiful pro studios, hearing instrumental superstars like John Patitucci, Mike Stern and Peter Erskine bring my compositions to life. I fully appreciate the luxury of having a bottomless mic cabinet, acoustically tuned spaces, airtight isolation rooms and monitors that cost more than the space shuttle.
 
At the same time, I love DIY recording. I've managed to produce some great-sounding projects which were recorded with limited gear in my one one-room project studio. These DIY projects (a fusion album, two singer/songwriter albums and an indie film score) were no less ambitious than the pro studio efforts, but relied heavily on the miracle of overdubbing to complete the complex arrangements that would have required massive amounts of gear and musicians to play live.
 

The Jazzooo crew (L-R): Duncan Moore (drums), Ken Dow (bass), Doug Robinson (composer, piano/keys), Dan Richards (recording engineer)

When I was planning the sessions for "Two Days In November," my brand new acoustic trio album with Jazzooo, I felt strongly that I wanted to combine the best of both worlds. First, I wanted to record the old-fashioned way: live in one room with minimal punch-ins, fixes and overdubs. When we really get going, my trio has mojo that I didn't want to interefere with by sticking the bassist in another room to get "better sound." Second, I wanted to do it at home to save money, and also to reduce the inevitable studio pressure to get everything right on the first take. And finally, I wanted it to sound as good as the projects I'd recorded at SoundTrax and Sony a couple of years ago -- that is, I knew it would not sound the same, but it had to at least sound like it belonged in the same cutout bin with other professionally-recorded jazz albums.

I was also pretty sure that my typical home recording ethic of being both the artist and engineer was going to be too distracting this time. I'd already had a standing loan offer from The Listening Sessions engineer/producer and gear guru, Dan Richards (aka online as "Dot"), to use some high-end microphone preamplifiers, and on a hunch I invited him to fly out and engineer the recordings.
 
In addition to his ears and low-key approach to problem solving, Dan brought a wonderful assortment of recording equipment. He good-naturedly integrated the new gear with my existing equipment (a combination of great, good and bargain basement stuff), and we went to work. What follows is a review of what we used and how it impacted the project, which I now consider to be my best work ever.
 
At any point during this review, you might be interested in clicking over to www.thelisteningsessions.com/jazzoo.htm. Dan photographed all of the mic setups and some general photos of the sessions. There are also 320-bitrate MP3s of unmastered mixes from the album, which will give you the opportunity to hear the performance of this equipment.
 
The Recorder
There was really only one piece of my own equipment that wasn't up for negotiation: my Roland VS2480 recorder. Since I was going to mix the album myself, I didn't want the hassles of recording on another system and dumping the tracks into the Roland. Besides, I've been comfortable working on Roland VS recorders since I bought my old VS880 in 1996. Since Dan had done work on other VS recorders, he had no problems with this.
 
The Preamps
Dan brought a Millennia HV-3D and a John Hardy M-1, and Peter Montessi of A Designs Audio delivered an MP-2. The plan was to use his converters and run the signal into the Roland via SPDIF, but we had to use a Roland DIFAT box in the chain and we couldn't get it to work. After about 20 minutes of head-scratching, we decided we would run outs from the external  preamps into the Roland's analog inputs. Some might argue that this was not the ideal way to go, but I suggest that you listen to the results before you judge. For me, the only thing that is important is how it all sounds...and it sounds great.
 
The Mics

Doug on the Kawai

PIANO: I typically record my acoustic piano with two AKG 414 B-ULS mics, but one of them was on the blink, so Dan decided to try a pair of ADK TL mics in omni mode (through a Millennia HV-3D preamp) aimed at the high and low strings and one ADK Commemorative Edition (running through a John Hardy M-1) lying at the tail end of the piano on a piece of foam to capture a more ambient image. This got a very pleasing and full sound. During mixdown, I often used different levels of the ambient mic. On some songs, it was the dominant mic and in others it was barely in there.
 
TOMS: The drum set was a smaller handmade jazz kit by an Italian company called Le Soprano. As you probably know, smaller drums can sound quite huge if recorded properly. We went with mostly my own mics on drums, including three Studio Projects B1 mics on the toms. I can't say how they would handle a smashing rock drummer, but they captured all the nuances of drummer Duncan Moore's work and gave us plenty of punch for the louder songs.
 
By the way, all the drum mics except the snare, the overheads and the hi hat went directly into the VS2480 preamps.
 

Duncan Moore on the kit

SNARE: I like drums to sound like drums, not enormous explosions. Anything that sounded processed or hyped would have been out of place on this album. I had been using the Studio Projects C1 on my snare for several months, and while Dan and I tested others, we were both very satisfied with that choice. Especially for brushwork, the C1 did what we needed it to do: capture a realistic sound. As you'll hear on the MP3s, it also handled the louder moments with the same unhyped approach. (The snare, by the way, was a Noble and Cooley. As good as the Le Soprano snare sounded, it couldn't compare with the N&C for its crisp resonance.)
 
HI HAT: We set up the functioning AKG 414 B-ULS, and to my knowledge didn't think about it again. Set and forget. Sounded fine, of course.
 
KICK: Even though we tried a couple of other mics, Dan and I both came back to my Audio-Technica ATM25. Again, it might not be the mic to lay down big fat fluffy kick hits, but for a realistic kick sound, this one did the trick.
 
OVERHEADS: The overhead solution provided the single biggest mic'ing revelation for me. Dan took two Earthworks QTC1 mics and positioned them about three feet in front of the set in an ORTF array. At eye-level to the drummer and spread 110 degrees from each other, these sensitive mics caught the lovliest, airest stereo spread I'd ever heard coming from my studio. It was instantly apparent that this was just what we needed.
 
However, the QTC1s couldn't quite handle the SPL of some of the louder material, we ruined a take or two with some overloading distortion. Undaunted, Dan replaced them with Earthworks SR77s. The sound changed, but we retained most of what was best about the QTC1's -- the airy stereo spread was still intact!
 

Ken Dow with ASC Tube Traps and RED5 mic

Bass
Bassist Ken Dow used three different instruments. The first was his Kaye acoustic bass with a David Gage pickup. Dan took the signal from the pickup and ran it into the HV-3D, and then mic'd the fingerboard with a RED5 AUDIO RVD1 dynamic mic. We had Ken basically surrounded by six ASC Tube Traps to keep drum bleed to a minimum ... but that proved to be only partially effective. The RVD1 mic still picked up enough drum signal as to make mixing a challenge. Due to this bleed, we actually had to overdub bass on one song, and for that we swapped the RED5 with an Earthworks SR77 -- better!
 
The second instrument was an Azola Euro Coustic Baby Bass. This is made by Steve and Jill Azola, who live only minutes from my studio. Designed to give upright players a realistic feeling bass that is far more compact and portable than your standard upright, it looks like a stretch cello -- about 4" deep and maybe 12" across. This bass was a pleaure to record, though we did have to run the pickups into my Sansamp direct box, and then into the Millennia. Micing it added some nice finger noise which I feathered into the mix later for definition. You can hear this bass on the song "LizBarber" at www.thelisteningsessions.com/jazzooo.htm.
 
On the song "Mo'Dunk," Ken plugged his Carvin six-string electric into the SansAmp and then the Millennia and off we went.
 
Additional Recording
After two days of recording, Dan needed to fly back home to await the arrival of his new son Max. We had gotten through 90% of the album, but there was still a little more music to capture. We left everything perfectly in place and when the players came back the following weekend, all I needed to do was press 'record' and sit at the piano.
 
However, I did have to improvise the mic'ing setup when I brought in saxophonist/flutist Tripp Sprague for a few tracks. For his tenor sax, I used an Earthworks SR77 -- my new favorite mic. I positioned it about three feet from his head, pointing slightly off center, ran it through the Millennia and bingo -- instant warm tenor sax sound. I didn't touch the mic when he grabbed his flute and within seconds he found the right spot to stand.
 
I also used the SR77/Millennia combo for my vocals on the sole ballad, "Haven't Really Given Up Yet." All of the other mics (the ADKs, Studio Projects and the AKG414) sounded just fine and would have worked imo, but the Earthworks had that extra bit of ... class is the word that comes to mind. My wife Glenda sang her background harmonies through this as well.

The additional synth overdubs were handled DI through the A Designs MP-2, which performed beautifully, and added just the right warmth, air and thickness to the tracks.

Cover of "Two Days in November"

The Mixdown
I used only the internal effects from the Roland VS2480 -- the reverbs are especially easy to work with, imo. Like most, I tweaked the presets to taste. I worked very diligently on the mixdown, and got a lot of great feedback from Dan and my friend Rich Breen, a wonderful engineer. Everything was mixed at 24-bit resolution into my Alesis Masterlink, then sent off to John La Grou at Millennia for mastering.
 
The End Result
"Two Days in November" is ... well, what else am I going to say? It's great! I think that artistically and sonically, it can stand up to any modern jazz recording. The one-room aspect gives the album an intimate "you are there" feeling, but the care Dan used in terms of mic placement really pays off --everything has definition without sounding isolated. The guys played great as well.

Check it out at www.dougrobinson.com and tell us what you think.





 

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